What Are Story Arcs? “The Oxford English Dictionary defines a story arc as (in a novel, play, or film) the development or resolution of the narrative or principal theme. A story arc is the shape of your story. The shape can be described as rises and falls on a graph. This shape is created by characters who encounter […]

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Abyss / Act (I, II, etc) / Actor/Actress / Actor's Toolbox / Allegory / Alliteration / Amphitheater / Antagonist / Anticipation / Archetypes / Aside / Atmosphere / Audience

Maureen Murdock is generally regarded as the first to chart an alternative to Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey narrative paradigm that she believed is more appropriate for women’s…

In this article, we'll show you how to craft a strong narrative arc for your story.

My dark-comedy novel has a voice similar to “This is Where I Leave You” by Jonathan Tropper and “Silver Lining Playbook” by Matthew Quick. I recently gave a shout out on Twitter to Matthew Quick, a…

A strong story arc gives your novel shape and structure. Read archetypal story arcs and steps to make your book more intriguing.

As a reader, I love to be tortured. I love the suspense, the waiting, the anticipation as a novel unfolds. It’s my favorite part of reading a story. Sure I love it when the love interests finally get together or the murderer is finally revealed, but the really fun part is the tension: The anticipation […]

The University of Vermont fed a computer over 1,700 fictional stories and used data-mining to identify the building blocks of all stories. They discovered that there are only six types of plots.

What if there were a sure-fire secret to creating stunning character arcs?